Best of the Early Beatles

"A Hard Day's Night" is not only a great rock album and great soundtrack, it is rightly regarded as the best of Beatlemania itself. There is enough of the familiar and hidden classics to make this puchase worthwhile. Certainly the title track, "Can't Buy Me Love," "And I Love Her," and "If I Fell" are worthy classics. ("If I Fell" is one of the best of the Beatles' love songs--maybe one of the best love songs period, for that matter.) The quality is consistent throughout. To paraphrase British writer Roy Carr, the second half is even more worthwhile. "Any Time at All" is great hard rock; "I'll Cry Instead," is a fine country-rock song (foreshadowing the next "Beatles for Sale" album) and the closer "I'll Be Back Again," is a classic Lennon ballad waiting to be unearthed. The second half also has a fine McCartney ballad, "Things We Said Today". The exhuberant spirit never wanes on this CD and is extended with songs like "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" and "I Should Have Known Better". Song for song, the mix, the quality, and energy are solid on this album. For those who only buy Beatles' collections, this C.D. will not seem redundant.

Surprisingly Good after 40+ Years

If you are a classic rock fan who has exhausted the Beatles' later catalogue and aren't sure if you like the early stuff as much, listen to this CD. It will convince you of how great the early Beatles were (something that people born after the 1960s might find harder to believe than those who were alive then). "I Should Have Known Better" was one of the first songs I tried to figure out on guitar. But I never bought the CD until much later. I purchased A Hard Day's Night to get closer to being a Beatles completist. I didn't expect it to be as good as it is. It's great. As Albert Goldman said, this was the closest that John came to making a solo record while he was with the Beatles. Paul's work is not nearly as strong, but George showed potential here as a songwriter. A Hard Day's Night is perhaps the Beatles' crispest and cleanest album. It rocks, has great harmonies, and crackles with the energy of guys on the top of the world. After listening to Pepper for the millionth time, you might need some good old rock and roll. A Hard Day's Night delivers that.

You've got to love everything that they do!

The Beatles' 1964 album A Hard Day's Night not only is titled after a weird phrase once said by Ringo Starr, but it also symbolizes the fab four in their teenybopping, world conquering heyday long before the highly artistic and sophisticated efforts of Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper, and The White Album saw the light of day.